The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Welcome to New York City, where villains roam and the police are undermanned, under resourced and largely useless in the face of devastating enemies such as The Green Goblin, The Kingpin, Doctor Octopus and a whole host of others. Enter Spider-Man, the hero that New York needs (although they might not want him).

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 follows the release of the film with the same name and continues the tale of our spidery superhero, Peter Parker.

What You Need to Know

Spider-Man is an open-world action adventure set in New York City. The game starts sometime in the past with a cut-scene of Peter Parker not acting to stop a thief, who ultimately kills his Uncle Ben. That’s great power not used very responsibly right there.

What’s New?

One of the complaints levelled at the first The Amazing Spider-Man game were the dynamics and ‘unrealistic’ application of the web swing. In the latest iteration, Spider-Man actually needs to attach his web to something before he can swing, and the left and right hand combination works very well. Web swinging is a bit difficult to get used to, but as the game progresses and as Spider-Man upgrades his abilities, it becomes easier and I was soon fluently soaring through the New York landscape.

Beenox has also improved the sneakiness of Spider-Man. It’s much easier to silently track the bad guys and use stealth take downs instead of going in and beating all and sundry into a pulp (you can still do that, and it’s fun, but you now have options). As you upgrade throughout the game, Spider-Man’s stealthiness increases and being sneaky becomes more fun.

What’s the Same?

Amazing Spider-Man 2 is quite similar to quite a few open-world games, and if you enjoy the franchise, you’ll definitely enjoy the game. I liked the fact that I could go where I wanted, when I wanted.

You’ll Enjoy The Amazing Spider-Man 2 If You Liked…

… the open world feel of Prototype 2 and Saints Row IV.

… other superhero games,especially other Spider-Man games, because, let’s face it, superheroes are awesome. This is especially true for the Batman Arkham series which features similar (but superior) combat.

What I Liked

- 5.) The diversity of the bad guys in the main story line makes the game very enjoyable. Yes, I understand that we all know the bad guys from the comics and movies, but it’s nice to be able to beat them up all by yourself.

- 4.) The hero / villain bar which represents how good or bad you are is great fun. There are many side missions on offer to help increase your hero status (and thereby ensuring that the task force leaves you alone) and these side missions offer a nice break from the storyline.

- 3.) Spider-Man’s ability to crawl all over the place is quite disconcerting and I did experience a few moments of vertigo, but consider he can do whatever a spider does, crawling up walls and on the roof does represent an accurate depiction of our hero.

- 2.) The enhanced web swinging is quite difficult to master but a lot of fun when I finally got it right.

- 1.) The open world context of the game makes playing the game lots of fun.

Favourite Moment

Finally mastering the web swing and being able to quickly and masterfully traverse huge tracks of land very quickly.

What I Didn’t Like

- 4.) Spider-Man is a bit of jerk in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and his constant arrogant chatter is very annoying. I like my superheroes with a bit more humility or at least sardonic humour like Robert Downey Jnr’s Ironman.

- 3.) The camera angles whilst crawling up walls and on the ceiling are quite confusing. Often I would simply drop to the ground to get my bearings because I was totally lost and turned around.

- 2.) Webbing your opponents whilst fighting them is very inaccurate. Sometimes I was trying to slow down an opponent and ended up webbing an entirely different enemy. This was quite frustrating.

- 1.) I felt that the game was slightly lacking – I got the feeling that the basics were done well but the developers ran out of time. I think they could have done more to enhance the playability and also to encourage me to play the game again.

Least Favourite Moment

Losing where I was and getting lost on the ceiling was a constant pain.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review – Launch Trailer

What’s Extra?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 doesn’t offer anything especially new to the world of gaming, but fans of the franchise will be happy to play it. The story is quite short but is long enough to get your money’s worth, and I had lots of fun roaming the streets of New York and beating various miscreants while otherwise protecting the citizens of the city.

The Bottom Line

New York City needs a hero, and that hero is you. Time to surf the web and bring Spider-Man’s enemies to justice.